Hradčany Square — What to See Before You Enter Prague Castle

Almost every visitor to Prague Castle walks across Hradčanské náměstí without stopping. They pass through the honour guard at the gate, snap a photo of the first courtyard, and head straight inside. What they miss is one of the most architecturally complete squares in Central Europe — three palaces, a baroque plague column, and a view back toward Old Town that rivals anything inside the castle walls.

We start our private castle tours on this square for a reason. The buildings here tell the story of who held power in Prague — the Church, the Habsburgs, the Italian nobility — and how they competed to build the grandest facades. Spending fifteen minutes on Hradčany Square before entering the castle gives everything inside it more context.

The Square — What You Are Looking At

Hradčanské náměstí is a wide, sloping plaza directly in front of the main castle entrance. It was the centre of Hradčany, which was originally a separate town founded in 1320 and not incorporated into Prague until 1784. The square functioned as a marketplace and gathering point for the castle's surrounding community.

At its centre stands the Marian Plague Column, erected between 1724 and 1736 to give thanks for the end of the devastating bubonic plague of 1713-1714. The column is topped with a statue of the Virgin Mary and flanked by figures of eight saints, including St. Wenceslas, St. Jan Nepomucký, and St. Vojtěch. Open-air prayers were held on this exact spot during the epidemic, and the column marks where the altar stood.

The square is ringed by three major palaces — Schwarzenberg, the Archbishop's Palace, and Tuscany Palace — each representing a different era and patron. Together, they form an ensemble that most visitors photograph but few can explain. We can.

Schwarzenberg Palace — The Sgraffito Facade

The Schwarzenberg Palace dominates the southern side of the square with a facade unlike anything else in Prague. Every surface is covered in sgraffito — a Renaissance decorative technique where a dark base layer of plaster is coated with a lighter top layer, then the top is scratched away to reveal geometric patterns beneath. The effect creates an optical illusion of three-dimensional diamond-shaped stone blocks across the entire wall.

The palace was built between 1545 and 1576 for the Lobkowicz family, designed by Italian master builder Agostino Galli. The sgraffito was completed in 1567, and while it has been restored multiple times, the original patterns remain faithful to the 16th-century design. The style is distinctly North Italian and Venetian — a reminder that Prague's Renaissance architecture was shaped by Italian builders and craftsmen who migrated north.

Today the palace houses a branch of the National Gallery Prague, with a collection focused on Bohemian Baroque art and Old Masters. Inside you will find works by Rembrandt, Rubens, El Greco, and the Bohemian painter Petr Brandl. The collection is smaller and less crowded than the main National Gallery venues, which makes it a more rewarding visit for anyone who prefers looking at paintings without a tour group blocking the view.